Page 80 of The Black Lotus
I look down at her and say in a playful tone, “Little vixen, do you enjoy killing?”
“I mean, I enjoy killing the bad guys.” She blushes as she smiles, looking away.
I slowly spin her around, mindful of her injuries as I lift her chin, desperate to have her look in my eyes. “Then the bad guys we will kill. After all, we are the Fatal Floral Killers.”
Her eyes light up, matching the night sky. “Do you mean it?” she braces herself on my chest, “How will we do it? Will we hunt down the true monsters of the world. The ones who hurt children and innocent people. The ones who cause the bad to fester and grow. The ones who deserve to be put down for their crimes. I think we should do that.”
She rambles on, talking about all the ways we can catch them and how Zephira can help us track them down. Getting justice for the ones who deserve it.
Capturing her lips in mine, I silence all the ideas I will grant her. I pull away, both of us breathless. “Anything you want, it’s yours.”
“Right now, I just want my fox.” She wraps her arms around my neck, kissing me under the stars.
EPILOGUE
SERENA
1 MONTH LATER
After leaving Cynthia’s body with Zephira, she left and we haven’t heard from her since. She put on a brave face, but something broke in her that night. With her already so damaged, I worry. I hope she isn’t falling into the darkness that almost consumed me. I know it’s different, but we both killed our mothers. Her out of hate and mine out of love, but it changes you. I just hope she reaches out soon, if not I will somehow find out where she lives and drag her back into the light. Aster and I both agreed she needed time to process everything. In the moment, filled with rage, it’s easy to kill anyone, but that was their mother. Her silence is proof that she’s taking it harder than we thought.
Aster won’t admit it, but I can tell it affected him. It’s in the way he spaces out sometimes, claiming nothing’s wrong when I ask. It’s the way he disappears for hours at a time. Honestly, I’m beginning to get worried, and if he shuts me down one more time, I know ways to get him to talk. I’m not opposed to using my womanly charm on him. But I have one more thing up my sleeve,a surprise for him that I hope will break this spell he’s been put under.
The sun is sitting high in the sky, the heat a blazing inferno keeping me plastered to the couch. I have my feet draped over Aster, tucked under a blanket despite the AC being on full blast as we watch a new crime documentary on Netflix.
I’m grateful Aster is like me and treats the sun like the plague, avoiding it unless we need to go shopping for anything. The world will see us again once the fall begins, and that is when we will begin hunting. I’m grateful for the break we’re getting after everything our bodies have been put through, this time a full recovery is just what the doctor ordered. And by doctor, I mean Aster. He said we needed to lay low and prepare. Reluctantly, after some persuasion on his end, I conceded.
Aster pauses the show and lulls his head toward me. “What were you thinking for lunch?”
I’m about to answer by telling him that I’m not hungry, that we need to leave soon, but my stomach betrays me. Aster chuckles and gets out his phone, scrolling through takeout options. He still has all the cameras up and running, along with the sensors, but since Cynthia is dead, the hit has been called off. Zephira triple checked and split the money into offshore accounts for us before she disappeared. The amount of money that we were given made my eyes bulge, let's just say our future generations are going to be set for life. But we don’t want to live like we're part of the one percent. We will still live as we always have just adding a few extra things here and there. Like a new section to our house for an art studio, a room big enough for us both. With the threat gone, Aster has been more relaxed, letting strangers come bring us food, although it isn’t often.
“I’m craving Chinese food. How does that sound?” He hands me his phone and I laugh, shaking my head as I scroll.Chinese it is.I scroll until I find what I want, adding my items to the order.
Handing him back his phone, he goes over it one more time before adding payment and relaxing back into the couch. “Food will be here in twenty minutes.” I nod, getting back into my comfy position with my hands pressed together and my cheek resting on them as Aster presses play.
Not even ten minutes go by when the phones go off and me and Aster share the same look. He takes out his phone and tenses, making me immediately sit up. “What’s wrong?” I ask, the hairs on my arms standing up.
“That’s not the delivery driver.” He zooms in on the video and grabs the knife we keep in the drawer of the coffee table. “Stay here.”
“What do you mean ‘stay here’? I’m not going to let you die on your own,” I whisper harshly.This man is always putting himself in harm's way. Even after I told him not to and he agreed that if anyone ever comes after us again, we’d never leave the other alone.
I throw the blanket off myself and grab my knife from the coat rack by the door. Having hidden weapons in multiple places in our home has come in quite handy. He looks at me out of the corner of his eye, giving me a ‘I’m going to punish you for not listening’ look and I roll my eyes, pointing at the door.
Aster presses the voice button on his phone. “Who is it? What do you want?”
The young and startled man looks around, finally finding the camera, and holds up a box. “I have a package for Aster Graves.”
His body tenses as his grip around the knife tightens. “Who is it from?”
The kid reads the label on the box and his eyebrows lift. “S-salem State Prison.” Every bone in my body locks up, until I remind myself that Cynthia is dead and not to freak out. I just hope it isn’t some kind of last ditch effort to take me out. I could see her doing that, but then again, she was too vain to even thinkshe would lose. I take a deep breath, shaking that thought from my head.We are safe.
“Leave it on the porch,” Aster demands as he watches the camera and waits for the kid to leave.
The prison. The same one his parents were at. The news has been reporting non-stop about finding the escaped convict, Cynthia Balcom, and the death of her husband, Adam Balcom. Authorities speculate she left the country after killing Jason, but we know the truth. We know where she’ll rot for all eternity.
We went back the next night to get Jason’s body and dumped it somewhere else for the police to find. It took them a few days, which meant he was barely recognizable, but we didn’t care. He was a dirty cop that helped Cynthia escape; he deserved far worse than he got. The service for him only held his family, all of the other officers turned up their noses, wanting nothing to do with him, and I don’t blame them.
When the car is off the property and Aster checks every other camera, he snatches the box on the porch and stiltedly walks back to the couch. He places the box on the table, and we just stare at it.
